Presence—One Internal and One Public Workshop
Friday, February 1, and Saturday, February 2, 2013
Cabaret Voltaire, Spiegelgasse 1, CH-8001 Zürich
Idea and concept: Philip Ursprung, Mechtild Widrich
Presence, signifying both immediacy and being someplace at a particular moment, is one of the most controversial terms in contemporary culture and politics. The visual arts and philosophy in particular have seen much controversy about the various claims (positive and negative) related to concepts ranging from neurobiology to deconstruction. Even though the latter has shaped cultural discourse since the late 1960s, from today’s point of view it seems doubtful that we can dispense with the concept of presence too easily. Certain questions persist: how do we describe consciousness, experience, and temporality with reference to our bodies and the surrounding world? Can we understand and communicate these relations without falling into a false sense of security?
Scholars and practitioners from philosophy, art, architecture, performance studies, and music discussed this contested term in a closed-door workshop and in several public roundtables.
DAY 1
We met at Cabaret Voltaire at 10am in an informal setting under the famous image of Hugo Ball performing in his cardboard costume. We started off with several questions that we had put together and sent out to the participants. We had some informal presentations that immediately brought up the problem of a binary approach (sense versus intellect, ‘authentic’ versus mediated presence), which then led to an interest in the historicity of the term. This focus on the historicity instead of / or at least in contrast to a timeless idea of “presence”, meant also discussing the use of the concept as ‘tool’ for the various disciplines. We found that the openness of the discussion and the informal nature of the interaction lead to a fruitful exchange not only between disciplines, but also helped break open the dichotomy between Derridean deconstruction on one hand, and hermeneuticists, and post-hermeneuticists.
The participants on this day were Elisabeth Bronfen, Jürg Berthold, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Mark Jarzombek, Amelia Jones, Pal Kelemen, Elke Krasny, Thomas Levin, Dieter Mersch, Rebecca Schneider, Philip Ursprung, Mechtild Widrich, Nina Zschocke, Peter Zumthor and Annalisa Zumthor-Cuorad
Internal Workshop, Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
Rebecca Schneider and Elisabeth Bronfen, Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
Peter Zumthor addressing the workshop participants at Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
Mechtild Widrich, Peter Zumthor, Elke Krasny, Thomas Levin at Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
Rebecca Schneider, Elisabeth Bronfen, Philip Ursprung and Dieter Mersch at Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Amelia Jones, Peter Zumthor, Annalisa Zumthor-Cuorad at Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
Elke Krasny, Mark Jarzombek, Pal Kelemen, Michael Meyer, and Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht at Cabaret Voltaire, February 1, 2013
DAY 2
This day was open to the public and was organized in several public roundtables. Short input-lectures were followed by a discussion among the participants and the audience. Panelists were Elisabeth Bronfen, Jürg Berthold, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Mark Jarzombek, Amelia Jones, Thomas Levin, Dieter Mersch, Rebecca Schneider, Philip Ursprung, Mechtild Widrich, Nina Zschocke and Peter Zumthor.
A publication incorporating both the public lectures and the closed-door workshop is in preparation.
Mechtild Widrich, Amelia Jones, Rebecca Schneider, Peter Zumthor, Public Roundtable at Cabaret Voltaire, February 2, 2013
Nina Zschocke, Mark Jarzombek, Thomas Levin, Jürg Berthold, Public Roundtable at Cabaret Voltaire, February 2, 2013
Philip Ursprung, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Elisabeth Bronfen, Dieter Mersch, Public Roundtable at Cabaret Voltaire, February 2, 2013
Amelia Jones, Public Roundtable at Cabaret Voltaire, February 2, 2013
All photographs courtesy Philip Ursprung and Mechtild Widrich